Amazon Punishes Publisher Over Pricing

Amazon Punishes Publisher Over Pricing

What happens when a large company that owns the market doesn't get what they want? Someone is punished. That's exactly what happened when Amazon didn't get the price reduction they wanted in negotiations with Hachette, the smallest of the five main book publishers.

After negotiations broke down, Amazon made changes to Hachette's listings; prices went up, delivery time went up and the books stop being featured. This includes JK Rowling's new novel The Silkworm, which has been completely removed from the site, as well as The Everything Store, which is a book about how Amazon does business.

Hachette is resisting Amazon's insistence that eBook prices be lower, an issue that once got Apple and publishers sued for price fixing. Now, without the power of Apple's illegal union behind them, Hachette is seeing a lot of trouble fighting this battle.

Neither Amazon nor Hachette have commented publicly on what is going on, but it is very clear that the two companies' business models are at odds. This is the type of move from a company from like Amazon that leads to a new, emerging marketplace.

As Amazon has grown its businesses in AWS, Fire, etc., their perception in the shopping world has been declining quickly. Is it time for a new Amazon.com competitor? Is this move to punish one of the largest book publishers the one that makes it possible? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.